Mothers Day Weekend

Spring Time! View this email in your browser Mother's Day Weekend Planning a Mother's Day Weekend? This Saturday, come learn how to eat from your garden at the Sustainable Roundtable! It is from 1:30-3:30pm Saturday May 13, 2017. Stay for a walk around the farm after. By donation and no registration required. My goal is for all of us are to maintain a sustainable small garden with choice Perennials, Bi-annuals, and Annual to feed ourselves and our family with all the delectable things we can think of. Please stop by at 1:30 on Saturday to plan your sustainable garden. Bring your binder, lined paper, scissors, glue stick, seed catalog and a list of your best small garden ideas to share with gardening friends We will also have Herbal bouquets for Mother's day! Artichokes and Asparagus Spring time is all about trying new fruit and vegetables for the garden. After learning that Artichokes and Asparagus were at the top of the list for nutrition, we produced several hundred plants of each for production this year and next. We may be eating artichokes later on this summer, but likely not asparagus for another year or two because the asparagus plant requires that you leave the foliage on the plant for two or more years as it requires is to produce photosynthesis. That answers from Lorne. Greenhouse The greenhouse is slowly making a transition from a winter greenhouse to a tomato greenhouse. The greenhouse is unheated and allows the greens crop to produce until the weather outside warms up some. Half of the greenhouse is in tomatoes and soon it will be full of tomatoes and cucumbers. Family U-Pick! We are planting, seeding, and making the beds to produce more local food. When the produce is ready, come down Friday afternoon and all day Saturday and Sunday to pick your own food. See the vegetables in the ground and pick food for yourself or your family. We had several customers last year come to pick a large quantity of beets, beans and berries. They canned and preserved them for the rest of the year. We have other customer who came and picked their groceries for the week. Kids are excited to pick their own food, be outside and eat what they have picked. Check out our Facebook page on what is available, in season and our start date for the u-pick season! Celery Farm celery is quite strong flavor and a little goes along way. It is wonderful in soup stocks because of the flavor. When we talked to the Chef at Sobos in Tofino, they are pickling the celery to use in their Caesars! We will have to try it. Do you have a favorite recipe to use farm celery? Bees As well as vegetables, we are taking care of our bee population by developing a perennial flower garden for use by our farm customers guests can use as a demonstration garden for bees. Please, if you do have a very favourite perennial plant that you can spare we would love to add it to the mix, and we are certainly willing to share anything we have to keep bees well fed and cared for. Two of our staff contingents have joined the Nanaimo Bee Club and help Lorne with our hives when required. Not nearly enough honey, but we are hoping for an increase in production when our new flower garden comes into production. Chicks The chicks are a couple week old now! They are thriving and looking very happy. They are enjoying the chick balancing beam as they build up strength to roost. Beans Cold as it is we must plant those vegetable seeds. Besides all the usual vegetables, we are going a try out a selection of every Fava Bean variety we could get out hands on. All colours, shapes and sizes. We have a few serious and imaginative cooks about the farm, so I expect they will be bringing out some cooking bulletins as the season moves along. There are at least three specialized growers in Canada and we have seed samples from them all. We are also growing Edamame Beans this year. We did it once ago, but not enough interest at the time. So, we shall see. Also nutritious, heritage purple potatoes to go into the ground when it dries out a bit. Don’t hold your breath. We have secret plans for discouraging the wireworm, with my homegrown recipe. We will soon see if we are successful or not. Did you know that Occasions Fine Foods has been selling their salad dressings at the farm for over 20years!! They are so popular that we have customers from Vancouver that come over just to get the salad dressings. Did you see on Facebook this week Huband Park Elementary school in Courteney showcasing their salad bar in their school with 50% of the food being local? Check it out here if you missed it. Do you have a salad bar program in your school? How is the program operated? Does it work with local farms? Share your story with us so we are able to share it with others! Email neorg@telus.net Green Soul Organics When you go up to Tofino make sure to check out the health food store, Green Soul Organics. We supply them with weekly produce and eggs. They have been wonderful customers. Check out their Facebook page by clicking here Check out some of the events that are happening at the farm and in the community. If you would like a hard copy of the events pick it up at our farm store. Do you want to pick for the farm in the summer? We have planted a lot of berries this year and we will need people to pick for the farm to see to our customers. Come down to the farm store, at the cash register there is a book to sign up and put your name and what days you are available. When we have berries to pick we will be going through the list of people to come in to pick for us. It is open for all ages (parent permission required). 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